Gavin Newsom takes on tough initiatives

FILE- In this May 11, 2016 file photo California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a meeting of the University of California Board of Regents in Sacramento, Calif. An online magazine opinion piece attributed to California Lt. Gov. Gavin News contains at least one paragraph that largely originally appeared on the website of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press

Even Gavin Newsom’s biggest detractors must acknowledge two things about the lieutenant governor: He dives into the substance of issues as deep as anyone in California politics; and, from the time he was mayor of San Francisco, he has shown a willingness to venture into areas where his contemporaries fear to tread.

How daring is his position on marijuana? As of last week, Newsom remained the only statewide elected official to support its legalization under Prop. 64. By contrast, in a visit with our editorial board on another subject Friday, Gov. Jerry Brown would merely allow that he was “mulling” his position on legal pot.

Newsom has been all-in on the issue ever since October 2013 when he convened a 24-member panel that included specialists in law enforcement, tax law, medicine and federal drug policy. At least half began their duties opposed to legalization. Their 93-page report offered a framework designed to deter the black market, raise tax revenue, and keep cannabis out of the hands of youth.

In his meeting with our editorial board on Prop. 64, Newsom, a father of four, made plain that he was not motivated by advocacy of greater marijuana use. His commission declared that it was not intended to generate “the next California gold rush.”

“I’m not pro-marijuana, I’m anti-Prohibition,” he said. “I think there are an overwhelming number of Californians that are in that bracket. We’re not trying to normalize it, we’re not trying to condone it.

“I hate it when I smell this stuff walking the streets. I can’t stand it. I see kids out there in parks and playgrounds, it’s like, ‘grow up, get a life come on ... you’ve got something better to do with your life.’”

Newsom predicted that legalization of marijuana in California — thus joining four smaller states — would be “a game changer” in the failed war on drugs that “is destroying millions and millions of lives today.”

His studied approach to a subject that would be so easy for a future opponent to mock as Cheech & Chong lunacy is classic Newsom. He was the mayoral wonk who kept overstuffed policy binders on his desk at City Hall and once delivered a retina-fogging 7-plus hour State of the City address on YouTube.

I’ll leave it to others to speculate on whether the 48-year Newsom is relentlessly reckless, cunningly calculating or driven by pure principle. But he has a trait that is rare in politics for someone with his skill and ambition for higher office: no fear of being alone.

One need reflect no further back than Feb. 12, 2004, a month into his first term, when Newsom authorized the county clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in defiance of state law. The act was condemned widely — even by many of his fellow Democrats — overturned in court and followed with a flurry on state bans on that November’s ballot that contributed to the re-election of President George W. Bush. One of his political mentors, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., bemoaned that it was “too much, too fast, too soon.”

But it was, to coin a favored Newsom phrase, a game-changer.

Newsom draws parallels between that experience and the head shaking he is encountered with his proposal in Prop. 63 to require background checks for the purchase of ammunition. He fully anticipates a lifetime of enmity from the National Rifle Association and its gun-manufacturer benefactors, who are certain to do their part to try to stymie his 2018 gubernatorial run.

“If Gavin Newsom wants to declare war on law-abiding gun owners and Second Amendment rights, we’re certainly going to bring the fight to him,” said Brandon Combs of Roseville (Placer County), president of the Firearms Policy Coalition, declared last year.

The lieutenant governor compared the intense tug-of-war about background checks on gun purchases to the debate about civil unions a decade ago. Each, in its own way, danced around the central issue that needed to be addressed. A civil union could never deliver the rights and responsibility, and societal validation, of a marriage license. And guns need ammunition to turn deadly.

My favorite quote of last week came from Gov. Jerry Brown, when asked if he feared his parole-reform plan, Prop. 57, might result in more crime. “I’m a politician; I’m fear-based in every respect,” Brown deadpanned.

One politician who hopes to succeed Brown offers evidence that such fear is neither innate nor universal.

Secretary of state certified, after random sampling of 600,000 signatures submitted, that it exceeded the 365,880 required for the November ballot.

What it does:

Imposes background checks through the state Department of Justice for the purchase of ammunition.

Requires a state license to sell ammunition.

Prohibits possession of large-capacity ammunition magazines.

Requires the reporting of lost or stolen guns or ammunition to law enforcement.

Ensures that anyone convicted of a gun theft is ineligible to purchase or possess a firearm.

Sets up a system to document that felons sell or transfer their firearms soon after conviction.

Proposition 64: Marijuana legalization

How it qualified:

Secretary of state certified, after random sampling of 600,000 signatures submitted, that it exceeded the 365,880 required for the November ballot.

What it does:

Legalizes marijuana for adults 21 and older.

Establishes 15 percent state excise tax on sales of marijuana, along with taxes on cultivation.

Creates a system of state licensing and oversight on growers and retailers.

Prohibits marketing and advertising aimed at minors.

Allows local governments to overlay their own taxes and restrictions on marijuana sales.

Permits the growing of up to six plants per household for individual use.

Leaves medical marijuana law intact. It is not subject to the excise tax or the 21-year-old restriction (it can still be purchased at 18 with a doctor’s recommendation, or younger with parental permission).

Before joining the opinion pages, he directed the newspaper’s East Bay news coverage. He started at The Chronicle in 1990 as an assistant city editor.

John began his journalism career as a reporter for the Red Bluff Daily News. Two years later, he was promoted to the Washington, D.C., bureau of the newspaper’s parent company, Donrey Media Group. After that, he worked as a general assignment reporter for the Associated Press in Philadelphia and as a statehouse reporter and assistant city editor for the Denver Post.

He graduated from Humboldt State University in 1977 with a degree in journalism. He received a Distinguished Alumni Award from HSU in 2009 and was the university’s commencement speaker in 2010.